The word of God is plain in its meaning. The Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the New Testament (the Old Testament as well BTW), to write down the teaching of Christ, the will of the Father, and the work of the Spirit. So when we run across a potential mistake in the text, it is good to remember the context of the conversation and the time in which it occurred.
Take a look at Matthew chapters 19 and 23 for an example. Jesus is still on earth, he had not been crucified and resurrected by this point. So, what can we learn?
The rich young ruler, came to our Lord with a question and referred to Jesus as “Good Teacher.”-v17 Jesus’ answer may seem a little odd. He said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”-Mark 10:18. The young man was, no doubt, attempting be respectful and humble when addressing our Savior. But Jesus quickly focuses his attention to God the Father. Was this because Jesus still had the potential to sin and fall short of God’s righteousness? It is difficult to say, but we can learn quite a bit from other encounters with Jesus and the Hebrew word “Rabbi.”
To the Jews of Jesus time, the word “Rabbi” meant teacher in Hebrew and “Master” in the Greek. As certainly as Jesus refused to allow people to call him by those words in several passages; he seems unbothered by being called Rabbi in other places in the New Testament (Mark 9:5; John 1:38; 3:26). Nicodemus addressed Jesus with both terms, and he did not flinch. Neither did our Lord correct Nicodemus when he said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God.”-John 3:2. Here Jesus is both “Teacher and Master.”
There is subtle way in which Jesu communicates the reality of his role as “master and teacher” in the sermon on the mount. Only the most distinguished rabbi’s of that time were given the honor of teaching while seated. Our Lord, “went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.”-Matthew 5:1.
Our lesson series this week with Dylan Cunningham1, bases its theme on the Sermon On The Mount. This is no doubt one of if not the greatest recorded section of teaching found in the Bible. If someone is interested in how they should be, “transformed by the renewal of your (their) mind,”-Romans 12:2,” or how they can learn to, “walk by the Spirit”-Galatians 5:16. They must drink deeply of the moral and spiritual milk of Matthew chapter 5-7. I look forward to being edified by brother Cunningham’s teaching. May God grant him words of wisdom and truth.
Join us this week as we study “words of the Master.” Jesus’ words are a light to our path and we will learn to be led by them this week. Y’all come.
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